


a little less alone

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Kree (Marvel), Love, Lucid Dreaming, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 17:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12893184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Ficlet set post S5.  Written for tqpannie.  Coulson discovers he can't sleep without her.





	a little less alone

He thinks he's dreaming it.

This almost reminds him of the dreams he had in the Framework. All can be recalled. Some come back without warning, the nightmares.

Part of him, in the back of his mind, knows that meeting Daisy made him question everything, and that not meeting her there left him a little more alone.

The marriage he had there failed, not really a surprise, he supposes, but he was never on the same page, never fully committed.

And at night, he dreamed of her, in vague glimpses of a Hula Girl, which ended up in his possession for as long as he could remember, like a touchstone.

A young woman with brown hair, her shoulders wrapped in a leather jacket, the feeling of purpose she conjured up in his mind as he desperately tried to find her eyes.

Sometimes he thought she would say his name to him, calling, and he would lie awake, trying to fall back asleep in anguish just to hear the sound of her voice.

He thinks of all of this as he lays as still as possible, and imagines that he feels the place beside him on the mattress dip with the weight of another person.

Holding his breathing steady, so as not to disturb the moment.

She's careful, and he knows that she's mastered getting in and out of places quietly for reasons that still hurt his heart.

The sound of her breathing, and then her turning so that her back is just touching his, then her matching his breathing so that they're are resting together.

He wants so badly to say her name. To turn to her in the dark and say that he'll be anything she needs him to be.

But he's afraid that if he does, he will wake up.

And be a little more alone.

  
###

  
He pauses while she stretches and yawns before she pours herself a cup of morning coffee, then she turns and notices him, watching, like a deer in the headlights.

"Hi," she says casually, moving out of the way so he can get in motion to pour himself a coffee instead of staring.

"Good morning," he says brightly, awake. Alert.

"Mmm," she says, humming into her cup, wrapping her hands around it's warmth. "I'm still just waking up."

"Did you sleep well?" he asks, more quietly, and holds the mug up to look at her over it before he sips.

"Uh, no," she says, frowning a little, eyes darting away. "I'm still adjusting to being back on Earth. I think it messed with my internal clock, or something."

"Or something," he says, nodding at her, waiting for her to meet his gaze. "I slept great, and it's been weeks since I haven't had a nightmare of those cockroach things."

"Good," she says, offering him a small smile. "Today is orientation."

"I know," he says with a smirk. "Our new recruits. You're starting training in the Cocoon back up."

"It's a good thing," she tells him with a raise of her eyebrows. "Inhumans and humans working together to protect each other."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he tells her, then looks down and steps aside as Mack moves in between them.

"Don't let me get in your way, or anything," he grumbles as Elena follows in behind him.

"He's grumpy today," Elena says loudly, with a broad smile.

"Because someone kept me up all night, that's why," Mack grumbles, and then reaches back to hand her a cup of coffee.

"It's a good thing," he tells Daisy with a hidden smile, before they leave them to their morning.

  
###

  
The Framework really did make his head hurt. Literally.

That's what all the stuff with the blue soap was about, but deep inside him, he knew instinctively that the Kree were up to no good.

He's carries a part of that inside of him, but in his case it wasn't done to make him a weapon. It wasn't woven into him like it was Daisy.

And Daisy went to the temple because of what was inside of him, like their lives were designed. That he was just a ripple stretching out, until the Earth was gone.

He sits up in bed, and feels the t-shirt sticking to him, the sweat making it cling to him.

His hand darts out and feels the spot beside him on the bed, to see if there is an indent.

He wishes that she was there. That he had someone to make the voices in his head get quiet again.

But she's not. And he sighs, and flops back down on his back and looks up into the darkness.

The display on his prosthetic is on a dim setting, but it still seems bright. And it's late, too late for this.

They have so much work to do.

He tries a few tricks he picked up over the years to fall asleep again. Some nighttime yoga breathing, trying to empty his mind.

And eventually he falls asleep, but it's purely out of exhaustion and probably age.

When he wakes up his neck is stiff, and as he leans across to get some water from his nightstand, he sees it.

The indent in the mattress next to him.

His mind starts to work again, immediately. Trying to convince him that there's something real here.

Then he decides he could've just rolled over in the night, working so hard to fall asleep.

  
###

  
"Are you okay?" she asks.

He looks up at her from the couch in the office away from the file in his lap. They've both stayed up late working again.

"You look tired," she adds with a sigh, and puts her file down.

They're looking for information about Inhumans in the old SSR files. They're looking for the information the Kree had tried to hide by erasing it in the future so it will never happen again.

"I am," he admits, then closes and sets the file aside. "Just need to get some sleep. Which, I should do. This will still be here tomorrow."

"This probably makes you feel like when you were in high school again," she says with a tired smirk. "Trying to dig up SHIELD's secret histories? Only now it's-"

"It's your history," he interrupts, relaxing back into the couch with an open-mouthed yawn, spreading his arms out across the back. "And ours."

"Thanks," she says, fidgeting with one of the pens sitting on the desk, a frown forming between her eyebrows as she works through it.

"You look tired, too," he tells her with a tilt of his head, so that she glances back up at him.

"Thanks," she repeats, almost rolling her eyes at him.

"I didn't mean it like that," he huffs, putting his hands on his knees and then getting himself up from the couch. "Me on the other hand? I need my beauty rest."

She smiles at him, her eyes on the space of the floor between them, like she is gauging the distance.

It makes him stop for a moment, frozen again. Waiting for something to happen.

So much happened in space, that they haven't talked about. Haven't had time to talk about.

"Well...goodnight," she says, walking past him and stopping to put her hand on his shoulder. "I hope you sleep well."

He looks at her hand as it falls off his shoulder, imagines his hand chasing after hers, as she walks away.

  
###

  
This time, he's not going to chance it.

Not after that encounter with the Watchdogs tonight and the fact that Daisy had to deal with Inhumans being injured and the press reaction to it.

Sometimes secrets are easier, and sometimes they're not.

He knocks on her door, but she doesn't answer and he holds his hand up, thinking to knock harder, then shuts his eyes and lets himself in.

She's curled up on the bed, legs and arms drawn up, he can tell from the dim light of the bathroom on.

Not wanting to sleep, not wanting to still be in the darkness alone.

Then he moves and sits down on the edge of the bed, enough so that the mattress dips, so she can feel his weight.

"You came," she says in a tiny voice, her shoulders moving.

"Yeah," he replies, putting his hand onto her shoulder. "It seems like I always do, doesn't it?"

Her head nods up and down against the pillow and he moves his fingers up and down her arm, just trying to make her feel better. Less alone.

"Will you stay?" she asks him, finally rolling over so he can see her eyes, shining even in the dim light.

He nods and then finds his voice. "Yes."

She sits up higher in the bed, leaning her weight onto one hip, reaching a hand up to his face, to slide her fingers along his cheek, his jaw, so lightly it's almost as if she's barely touching him at all.

She is here and she is solid, and it's not like one of his dreams, he thinks, and he puts his hand over hers, sliding his fingers between hers, and before he can realize it, a tear is slipping down his cheek, like a crack in the dam inside of him almost ready to burst.

"Come here."

Her arms wrap around his shoulders, and he holds onto her tightly, hugging her so hard against him, that she starts to laugh against the hollow of his throat and he releases her, starts to offer an apology.

"No," she shakes her head at him, smiling. "No, you're not sorry. I'm not, either."

His face gets hot first, then it travels all down the length of his body, settling in his core then when she finally presses her lips against his, it spreads, filling him all the way to the ends of his fingers.

The tip of his nose is tingling.

"Did you just use your powers?" he asks, as his eyes start to flutter open.

"No," she tells him, before kissing him once again, lightly. "I think it's something stronger."

He kisses her then, like he never wants her to feel alone.


End file.
